Hiking Tetrahedron Park

It appeared to me that time had stopped. Every time I looked at my clock, it seemed as if no time had passed. I'm trying desperately to sleep, I'm freezing cold, the floor is uncomfortable , and the stranger across the loft won't stop snoring. I'm thinking to myself, "How can I shut him up nicely?" --I contemplate throwing my sandal at his head. Instead, I look out the fire escape at the starry sky and take a deep breath and burrow myself farther into my sleeping bag and cover my ears. How did I get to sleeping in a loft with a guy I want to muffle? My eagerness to explore the outdoors and to see as much of British Columbia as possible as led me to this.

My goal this summer has been to get outside as much as possible and see what the coast has to offer. All around Gibsons and Sechelt are great day trip hikes, ranging anywhere from an hour to a few hours. This past weekend, a friend and I decided to go hiking in Tetrahedron Provincial Park, approximately 15 kilometres northeast of Sechelt. Throughout the park are lakes, streams, marshlands,and multiple trails leading to cabins built by the Tetrahedron Outdoor Club.

We decided to bypass the first cabin at Bachelor Lake and head towards Edwards cabin, roughly 6 kilometres into the park; walking through wet, green rainforest and open, rocky meadows. Since it was a cloudy, fairly wet and foggy morning, we were quite surprised when we met three young men already camping out in Edwards cabin. Shortly after we arrived, another six hikers showed up, but thankfully they decided to continue on towards Mt. Steele, roughly another 3.5 kilometres away. The cabins are fairly spacious with a downstairs ‘lounging’ area, including kitchen counter and fire stove, and the upstairs is a loft that can easily fit eight to ten backpackers, but with us two girls and the three other guys, I think that was just enough people. It can fit more people, but only if you really want to snuggle up with your bunkmates. After we dried up a bit and got to know our new roommates, we decided to hike farther into the park to explore one of the lakes.

Taking a break at Edwards Lake

The unfortunate part of the provincial park, is that these lakes are all apart of the Sechelt watershed. Meaning, no swimming or going into the lakes. It wasn’t the warmest day for swimming anyways so it was no bother to us. The trail leading from Edwards cabin to Chapman lake is pretty narrow, meaning a lot of trees and bushes brushing against us on the way down, soaking and scratching our legs. We crossed a few washed out creeks and avalanche areas, one flowing creek and managed to walk across a fallen tree “bridge” without falling in to the cold water, just to arrive at an incredibly boggy wetland/lake.

It was a pretty, rustic area, and if I was a bird or a frog, I’m sure I would have loved it. It was definitely serene, but at this point in my day I was feeling a little tired and wet. We sat there for a bit before deciding to head the 3.5 kilometre uphill hike back to the cabin. Once we got back to our cabin, we had discovered a whole new meaning of worn-out. As we sat down to cook dinner, we wished we had brought in a couple beers. A nice cold drink would have been perfect after a day of hiking. Our lovely bunkmates offered us their whiskey (just shots), but we kindly declined. Hangovers and hiking don’t really go hand in hand.

Lucky for us, all 5 of us were exhausted times night fell. As I crawled into my sleeping bag, my eyes already shutting, I hoped for a quiet, refreshing night…